Somewhere about 700 years ago, a monk in famous Reading Abbey composed
a song in praise of Spring. Its words and music were written down at
the time and you may see them to-day at the British Museum.
That song--they call it our oldest song--was “Sumer is icumen in,” and
its author, antiquaries believe to have been, one John of Fornsete.
They say this famous ancient “Round” was written some time between 1226
and 1240 when King Henry III was on the throne, and when the signing of
Magna Carta was but a few years old in the memory of living men.
This is a wonderful old song, very simple, yet somehow bringing up a
picture of the unchanging Spring as it came those centuries ago to the
river meadows of the silver Thames, that stretched away from Reading’s
mighty Abbey, then a comparatively modern building, little more than
a hundred years old. And some young brother, at work in the fields
perhaps, overjoyed to see the sun and the green leaves again, finding
expression of his joy in song and music.
To-day you may still find many remains of that stately Abbey at
Reading, which became one of the richest in the land. Its inner gateway
still stands and its guest house, as well as many ivy clad ruins of its
other buildings.
And Reading, for all its busy modern life retains much of its old-world
atmosphere in its fine churches and queerly named streets. And here,
too, you will find, in the Museum, relics of Roman Britain unequalled
in England, for to Reading have been brought the treasures excavated at
Roman Silchester a few miles away, the buried city sometimes called the
British Pompeii.
The neighbourhood of Reading teems with objects of natural beauty and
historic interest, which more than repay the examination of the visitor
to this, at first sight, rather modest modern red brick country town.
Reading has seen in its time a very full share of England’s history and
romance.
[Illustration: Original manuscript (six voices) of “Sumer is icumen in”.]
NOTE.--The original composition of “Sumer is icumen in” took six
persons to sing it. The modernised version given on the next
page is for a solo voice with pianoforte accompaniment. In it
the old wording has been slightly modernised, the only archaic
word occurring being “sterteth” which means “frisketh,” and
“verteth” now an obsolete term indicating to go to the vert or
the greenwood. “Sumer is icumen in” means literally: Summer has
come in.
The old version with the ancient notation, English and Latin words,
and instructions as to singing, shows very much the form of the
original 13th century manuscript.
[Illustration: _Newer version of song (one voice). Page 1 of 2._]
[Illustration: _Newer version of song (one voice). Page 2 of 2._]